


A Shot in the Dark

by OliversMuse



Series: Silent Killers [3]
Category: Arrow - Fandom, Felicity Smoak - Fandom, Oliver Queen - Fandom, olicity - Fandom
Genre: AU, FBI, Murder, Mystery, New Day, married, working together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-02-28 15:25:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18759160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OliversMuse/pseuds/OliversMuse
Summary: Part of the Silent Killer's series. Oliver and Felicity try to solve the case of a mother that was shot in her car on the way to work.





	1. A Shot in the Dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This banner is once again done by the wonderful @olida_magda. Sweetheart you are too good to me.
> 
> Enjoy!

 

Oliver rubbed his eyes as he and Felicity wrapped up their investigation of the scene. They had arrived at the scene before sunup when they received notification that a young mother had been driving to work early that morning and a gunshot ended her life. Her car had traveled across three lanes of traffic before going down and embankment and crashing into a tree. They were lucky, she was not going at a high rate of speed as traffic was heavy that morning. The other cars were able to avoid the vehicle as it passed, so no one else was hurt. 

He looked over at his wife who was kneeling next to the driver's side door examining the bullet trajectory as well as the wounds to the victim. He had been combing the area for some clues, but he was starting to realize that this shooting was done from another vehicle. There were no clues to find.

Felicity looked up as she heard her husband approach and she stood with a sigh as she removed her rubber gloves. 

"White female, late twenties. Bullet to the left temple. You can see where the bullet pierced the driver's side window and then hit the victim." She pointed out the information to Oliver a she talked.

"Did you find any identification?"

"Purse and wallet were in the floor board. Name is Sandra Perkins. I was able to get her address from the license."

Oliver hated this part. They had to go and notify her next of kin and then subtly try to question them to see what they knew. Had she fought with anyone recently? Any angry boyfriends or husbands in the picture or was this just a random, senseless killing? He always felt for the families of their victims. The screams and cries were sometimes gut-wrenching, but periodically you got the quiet ones. They usually wore a stoic face as they were informed of their loved one’s death. They would stand rigid, their eyes almost blank as they asked how and where and why?

The thing about the quiet ones that always bothered him was that you could not speak to them without wondering in your mind if they were involved, did they know something?

"You want to come with me to talk to the family?" Oliver offered the chance to Felicity, he always did. However, she usually declined citing that the emotional toil was too much for her to bear. Felicity could handle a dead body with the professionalism and finesse of the finest, but she shied away from the emotion, as it was just easier for her to keep things clinical.

"No. I am going to follow the body to the morgue and see if there is anything else that I can glean." Oliver nodded and kissed her cheek before he walked over to a group of beat cops and detectives standing to the side of the perimeter. He quickly dispatched the men to find any information they could. There were some cars that had stayed nearby when the shots were fired. Maybe one of the driver's saw something. 

"Detective Davis, you can come with me. We need to go notify the family." 

The older detective nodded grimly and followed Oliver to his car. All detectives hated this part of their job, but it was something that had to be done. 

***

Oliver and Detective Davis approached the door of a one-story brick home, in a decent part of town. It seems the woman was from a middle-upper class family and that made things even more mysterious for Oliver. He knocked on the door and grabbed his badge preparing to show it to whomever happened to answer the door. He was surprised and heartbroken when a little girl around 7 years old looked up at him.

“Hi. My name is Agent Queen, and this is Detective Davis. Is there an adult in the house?”

“Dad!!” The little girl yelled over her shoulder and soon a hagard looking middle-aged man with blonde hair and blue eyes walked forward. He was dressed in a pair of causal slacks and a polo shirt and Oliver immediately thought that he looked like a frazzled Dad.

“Yes?” The man gave them a quizzical look.

“Hi Sir. I am Agent Queen, and this is Detective Davis. I was wondering if we could speak to you alone for a moment?”

The man frowned.

“It’s about Sandra Perkins.”

The little girl looked at her Dad as his eyes widened. “Um Carey, why don’t you go check on Jordan for me while I talk to these nice gentlemen.”

The little girl quickly walked off and the man invited them into the living room.

“Sir are you Sandra’s husband?”

The man stammered, “Yes, is everything ok?”

Oliver let his eyes wander around the room before he said. “I am sorry to have to tell you this Mr. Perkins but your wife is dead.”

The man gasped, his eyes widening even more, tears welling up. “Wha…what?”

“She was shot this morning on Hwy 77 near Guston Rd.”

“That is how she travels to work.” The man was trying to hold it together, Oliver could see that. He let his eyes wander around the home taking in anything he could see.

“This might have been just a random act, but we need to get as much information as we can about your wife.” Detective Davis spoke up and the man’s eyes flew to him.

“Ummm yes, of course.”

“What is your name Sir?” Oliver asked needing to get the man’s information.

“Oh…sorry. Tim. Tim Perkins.”

“Thank you, Tim., Can you tell us, did your wife travel the same route to work everyday?”

“Pretty much. She was a creature of habit. She started this job about a year ago and was happy there. She had decided to go back to work after Jordan was born.”

Oliver tried not to let the man’s lost eyes get to him. He couldn’t imagine losing Felicity.

“Was there anyone that was mad at your wife? Maybe a co-worker? A friend?”

“No. Oh my god no. Sandra was amazing. She was nice to everyone.”

Detective Davis took notes as they spoke, and Oliver delved a little deeper. “Mr. Perkins, I hate to ask this, but I need to cover my basis. Could your wife have been seeing someone else?”

The man’s eyes filled with fury and Oliver was prepared. They always got mad when he asked that question.

“How dare you! Of course not. She would never do something like that to me or the kids.”

Oliver nodded but was thinking in his head, “they don’t until they do.” He had seen it too many times.

"Had you guys been fighting recently? How was your relationship?" Oliver watched Tim for any tells.

"Um, we had arguments like all couples do. Mostly about the kids and our schedules." He seemed surprised that Oliver had implied that he might have been involved. "Look, I was here with my kids all morning." Oliver could tell he was sincere.

"Can anyone verify you were here all morning?"

"Only my daughter."

Oliver nodded, not wanting to question the young daughter just yet. She was going to have enough to deal with this morning.

“Tim, can you give us Sandra’s place of work, so we can go talk to her co-workers?” Detective Davis asked delicately and handed a piece of paper and his pen to Tim. The man wrote down the information and Oliver decided the man had endured enough for today. He stood and held out his hand to him.

“Again Tim, we are so very sorry for your loss, but please know that we will not rest until we find your wife’s killer.”

The man could not speak, and he nodded as Oliver and Detective Davis walked to the door. Oliver turned and handed him his card.

“If there is anything you think of or if there is anything you need, please call me.”

The man nodded again, and Oliver and Davis left. As they were driving to the station Oliver thought back over their conversation. There was nothing that had particularly caught his attention about Tim. The man seemed genuinely upset. Maybe their clue was at Sandra’s office.

They would go there tomorrow.

***

Felicity pulled off her gloves and her mask as she had completed the autopsy on the victim. She had died from the gunshot wound and based on where the bullet had entered it had been a clean shot. Felicity was thinking that whomever had shot her was right next to her on the road. The shot was too clean, too perfect.

She made a mental note to tell Oliver that they needed to check the surrounding road cameras. Maybe one of them caught something.

She threw her disposable scrubs into the waste bin and walked toward the station. It was only a few blocks away and she thought the fresh air might do her some good.

Felicity thought back to the young woman that had been just driving to work. Her life had been over in a split second and if she had to guess, based on the fact there had been a car seat in the back seat, she had kids.

That was always so hard for Felicity to reconcile. When someone was torn away so young from their family. It was heart-breaking. She stepped into the nearby coffee shop and grabbed her favorite brew before she made her way back to the station. Oliver was sitting at the computer typing away when she arrived.

“Ahhh, please tell me you are doing the report this time.” She grinned teasing him. The reports were something else that Oliver hated doing and Felicity always teased him about it.

“Me, of course not. My lovely, brilliant wife is such a better word smith than I.” He grinned at her and she kissed his cheek.

“Flirt. So, how did the meeting with the husband or boyfriend go?”

“It was her husband and he was devastated. She had two kids, one only a few months old.” Oliver looked at her with pained eyes and Felicity met his gaze. She had been right.

“We were able to get her place of work from her husband. I am going to go there tomorrow.” He looked at Felicity with interest. “How about you? Anything unusual?”

“Nope. The only thing I wanted to mention was that based on how that bullet entered her brain, I believe the killer was literally right next to her on the road. There was no angle.”

Oliver thought about that. “So, it was someone that knew what she drove and unless this was a random killing, which they rarely are, they knew her route to work.” He turned his chair back to the computer and typed in a few more keystrokes pulling up her place of business.

“Let’s hope someone there can help us because right now we have nothing.”

Felicity sighed and mentally prepared herself.

This case was going to be tough.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is a short update. Enjoy!!

Felicity sat reviewing film after film from the camera's around the crime scene. It was tedious work so Felicity had created an algorithm to help expedite the process. However, it still took hours to review. Oliver and another Detective had left earlier that morning to question some of their victims’ co-workers and she was curious to know if they had learned anything.

She found some footage on the camera's but no evidence that another car had paced Sandra's, which meant that the cars that had passed her while in camera view did not have time to fire that fatal shot. _That was odd._

Felicity decided to look at the car again. Maybe she missed something before that would give her a clue as to what really happened.

She looked at the bullet hole that had shattered the window and she noticed something that she had missed before when she was looking at the scene. She was right.

_How had she missed that before?_

This could change everything.

_Oh Shit, she had to call Oliver now!!_

***

Oliver and a rookie detective arrived at Sandra’s place of work and looking around, walked inside. She had been an administrative assistant at a real estate office in town and Oliver hoped that someone might be able to give them some information on Sandra in the days before she was killed.

They approached the receptionist desk and Oliver threw on his winning smile and flashed his badge.

“Hi, my name is Agent Queen. We are here to see the Managing Director.”

The young lady looked up from her cell phone and when she saw Oliver she smiled brightly.

“Let me ring his office.” She gave him a flirtatious look and then got on the phone and dialed an extension.

Oliver walked around checking out the lobby and when he heard some footsteps he turned to find a well-dressed middle age man with brown hair and brown eyes walking forward with a smile. The man approached and held his hand out to Oliver.

“I am James Saunders , how can I be of assistance.”

“Hi, Agent Queen and this is Detective Wells. Do you have somewhere that we can talk in private?”

The man glanced at Detective Wells and then turned and led them to a nearby conference room.

“Mr. Saunders, you have an employee by the name of Sandra Perkins is that correct?”

The man frowned. “Well I did. She has not shown up for work the last few days and has not called. HR made the decision to terminate her employment.”

Oliver folded his hands in his lap. “Sandra was murdered on her way to the office three days ago.”

James looked at him stunned. “OH my god.”

“Did you notice if Sandra had any arguments with any of her coworkers recently? Did you see her fighting with anyone?”

“Uh no, in fact Sandra was very well liked here. She was always on time and a hard worker which is why it surprised us when she just quit showing up and did not call.”

“Was she seeing anyone here?” Oliver had to find out if she was maybe cheating because sometimes things happened out of crimes of passion.

James blushed and then shook his head and Oliver noticed.

“No. Susan was married.”

Oliver glanced at Detective Wells before he looked at James again. “We would like to speak to your other employees. Is there anyway we can meet with them one on one?”

“I can have the admins come in, but the brokers will be harder to catch. They travel and work out of office quite a bit.”

“Well we will speak to whomever we can get. Thank you, Tom.”

James stood and looked at them both again before he walked out of the room. Oliver looked at Wells and was about to mention Jame's reaction to his question about the victim seeing someone at work when his phone rang. He looked down to see Felicity’s picture and he answered.

“Felicity, what’s up?”

“Hey, I was going back over the car and looking at the trajectory of the bullets and such and I noticed something that I missed at the crime scene. Oliver she was not shot from outside the car. Whomever shot her was inside the car with her.”

Oliver’s eyes widened, “How do you know?

“I was looking at the glass and how it fractured and then the blood splatter from within the vehicle and I saw that it was all consistent with someone sitting next to her. I knew they were beside her somehow, I just thought it was from the outside.”

Oliver saw someone walking their way and he thanked Felicity and told her he would call her when they were done. As he hung up the phone a young woman entered the room and the interviews began.

They had spoken to about 5 ladies when a woman came in with something that caught Oliver’s attention.

“Lindsey, can you tell us if Sandra was seeing anyone here at the office?”

Lindsey looked around nervously and Oliver noted her wringing her hands. She knew something but was afraid to say.

“Anything you say to us is confidential Lindsey. No one will know who any information we receive came from.” Oliver smiled reassuringly, and Lindsey looked at him and nodded.

“She has been seeing James.”

Oliver was floored. “James as in her boss James?”

Lindsey nodded. “Everyone in the office knew about it because they were not exactly subtle.”

“Why have none of the other ladies mentioned this?”

Lindsey grimaced, “Because we were told that if we said anything we would lose our jobs.”

Oliver’s jaw clenched.

“Did Sandra and James ever ride in to work together?”

Lindsey nodded, “On occasion. It was hard for her to do because of her husband and kids, but there were several mornings they both arrived at the same time.”

Oliver nodded and asked a few more questions and after they completed the interviews he called asked to see James one last time.

James walked in with a stiff smile.

“Thank you for allowing us to speak to the staff. We have everything we need.”

James shook their hands and walked them to the front doors. “If there is anything else we can do to help catch Sandra’s shooter, please let me know.”

Oliver’s schooled his features at Jame's slip of the tongue and smiled before walking to the car.

James had slipped up royally.

***

Oliver hurried back into the precinct and made his way to Felicity’s desk. He needed to get Felicity on checking the car for Tom’s DNA quick. He approached her desk and she turned with a smile and a fist pump.

“I am on a roll today Queen. I was able to find some unidentified DNA in the car, specifically in the passenger’s seat.”

“Well I think I might know who that DNA belongs to, but we may not have his DNA on file. His name is James Saunders and he was Sandra’s boss and lover.”

Felicity looked at him stunned. “Lover?”

“Yep, seems the boss and Sandra had a thing going on at the office and were not too quiet about it. One of her co-workers mentioned it. However, that is not the best part. When we were leaving James let slip that he would help us to find Sandra’s shooter. I never said how she was murdered.”

Felicity grabbed Oliver’s cheeks and kissed him soundly on the mouth. “On my dear husband you are so good.”

Felicity started walking toward the lab as Oliver followed behind her. She needed to check the database and see if Jame's information was there, so they could check the DNA sample against his information. She had not run the DNA through the database just yet and she was glad she had stalled.

Felicity scanned her access card and made a beeline for the computer. She quickly typed in the name that Oliver gave to her and then they waited.

“Let’s hope we have his DNA because if not, you have more to do Mr. Queen.” She looked over her shoulder at him and grinned.

Oliver prayed they would get a hit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoy my content, please consider supporting me on ko-fi! https://ko-fi.com/T6T6VLZD


	3. Chapter 3

They watched as the screen flashed face after face and Oliver’s hands tightened on the back of Felicity’s chair as they waited. He prayed they would get a hit off the blood and sure enough 20 minutes later they did. But it was not the hit they were expecting, and Oliver and Felicity stared at the screen in surprise.

“That is not her husband.” Felicity looked up at Oliver.

“And that is not her boss.” Oliver sighed.

They were looking at the photo of the Sandra’s co-worker Lindsey.

“Do you think there was a triangle going on?”

Oliver grimaced, “Or possibly jealousy. Maybe Lindsey has a thing for James and she was jealous of Sandra and James’s relationship.”

“The fact that she was the one that told you about James and Sandra’s affair makes that plausible.” Felicity saw a beep on her phone and she looked down to see a text from the crime lab. They were testing a bullet that had been found lodged in the driver’s side door and Felicity was hoping that based on the type of gun that was used that it would help them move closer to catching the killer.

“Well I’ll be damned.” Oliver moved closer at her words looking down at her phone. “It seems that the killer used a Glock 26.”

“That gun is small enough to hide in a purse or even a coat pocket.” He walked over to the desk and grabbed his phone. “Can you get a warrant set for Lindsey? I am going to grab a couple of officers and head to her place of work.”

Felicity nodded and immediately got on the phone as Oliver hurried down the hall. They needed to surprise Lindsey so hopefully they would not spook her and bring her in for questioning. Once the arrest warrant was done then they could detain her.

***

Oliver and the officers approached the front desk of the real estate office and when the receptionist looked up and saw them her eyes grew wide.

“Agent Queen, we need to see James’s please.”

The receptionist immediately got on the phone and called her boss. When he walked out and saw the police his steps faltered.

“Agent Queen, what can we do for you?” He looked confused and Oliver approached him and explained.

“We are here for Lindsey. Is there another way out of this office?”

James’s eyes widened, “Ummm, there is a back entrance, but it is always locked, and no one uses it.”

Oliver turned to the officers next to him. “Can you take one of these men to that exit and then stop and ask Lindsey to come up front?  We would like to do this civilly if possible.”

James nodded and then walked through a set of double doors, the officer close behind him. A few moments later James exited the doorway with Lindsey close behind him and when she saw Oliver and the officer standing there, she immediately stopped and took a step back. Oliver stepped forward.

“Don’t make this too difficult Lindsey.” He approached her, and her eyes darted around as if seeking an escape. “We just want to ask you some questions.

She finally agreed and walked with them out to the squad car. When he had her safely in the back seat he quickly moved to his sedan to follow them back to the precinct.

Now they were going to have an opportunity to question her and hopefully find out exactly what happened that fateful morning.

***

Oliver and Felicity sat across from Lindsey. Felicity had the warrant waiting when they arrived back with their suspect and Oliver informed her of her rights. However, after talking with Felicity she had agreed to tell them what happened and so here they sat.

“The morning that Sandra died I had asked her if I could get a ride into the office. My car was on the fritz and so she came by and picked me up.”

“What time was that?” Oliver asked.

“About 6:00 a.m.” She swallowed. “While we were driving she started talking to me about James.” Her eyes clouded up, but Felicity could see the pain hidden behind her eyes.

“What did she say about James?” Felicity asked the question softly.

“She verified that she and James were having an affair, but she told met that it was just a fling. She had been using him because things had been tense lately with her husband and James offered her an escape from the pressures of her family.” Lindsey’s lips tightened. “I loved him, and she was just using him.”

“Did James know you were interested in him?” Oliver asked, folding his hands on the table.

“Yes. He and I had dated for a couple of months about a year ago. He broke things off when Sandra started flirting with him.”

Felicity frowned, “Did she know that you and James were dating?”

“No, James wanted to keep it quiet. He didn’t want the whole office knowing, so we kept it to ourselves.” She was starting to grow angry. “But then when he got with her it was like he didn’t care who knew. Was he ashamed of me?”

She started crying and Felicity exchanged a look with Oliver before she asked softly, “Lindsey, what happened after she started talking to you about James?”

She sniffled, and Oliver handed her a tissue, “It made me angry. I was furious because she was speaking so callously of him.”

Oliver and Felicity waited patiently. They needed her to say it.

“I got so angry that I pulled my gun out of my purse and I just fired. When the car crashed after it ran off the road, I just ran.”

“Lindsey, why did you have a gun in your purse?”

“I started carrying a gun after I was mugged about six months ago.”

Felicity and Oliver looked at each other and Felicity slid a piece of paper and a pen across to her. “Can you write down everything you just told us?”

Lindsey wiped her nose and then took the pen and started writing. Oliver followed Felicity out of the room and when they got to their desk she sat down with a huff.

“Another crime of passion and now two children don’t have their mother.” Felicity hated that, and Oliver kissed her on the head.

They booked Lindsey later that afternoon and as they drove to inform Sandra’s husband about Lindsey’s confession, Felicity took Oliver’s hand and held it in her lap. There were tears as they told Tim about the affair and how his wife had died that morning.

As they left Felicity could not help but think of those poor kids, one of which would never know his mother. It was a part of the job that she hated but knowing they had put the right person away and gave Sandra’s family justice made it all worthwhile.

 


End file.
